Week In Review

November 05, 2006

Anne Arundel

2 women allege rape at man's trail

Two women testified in a military hearing on Thursday that they were raped this year by former Navy football player Kenny Ray Morrison, who prosecutors allege drugged them before sexually assaulting them.

Speaking quietly, one accuser said she awoke in a Washington hotel room Feb. 4 after a night of heavy drinking to see Morrison standing over her.

She said that Morrison - a virtual stranger - picked her up from the bed and moved her to an adjacent bed.

The woman, now a senior at the U.S. Naval Academy, said she tried to resist him while he removed her clothes and raped her. She testified that Morrison sexually assaulted her two more times after that.

Another woman who recently graduated from the academy also testified at the Article 32 hearing, held to determine whether there is enough evidence to court-martial Morrison in the separate incidents. She said she blacked out after drinking five beers at O'Brien's Oyster Bar and Restaurant in Annapolis on April 21, the last of which was provided by Morrison.

Maryland section, Friday

Anne Arundel

Executive race in attack phase

What began as a polite contest between two men seeking to become Anne Arundel County's next chief executive has morphed into a frenzy of attacks on each other's record.

With recent polls showing the race a dead heat between Democratic county Sheriff George F. Johnson IV and Republican Del. John R. Leopold, the two have begun unloading hundreds of thousands of dollars in the campaign's final days, in the form of TV and radio ads and mailings, trying to weaken each other.

Maryland section, Friday

West County

Clearance call preceded plane crash

The pilot of a single-engine plane that crashed at Tipton Airport, killing him and his passenger, failed to get flight clearance before takeoff, according to a preliminary investigation report.

An employee of the airport told the pilot, Daniel L. Eberhardt, 57, of Downers Grove, Ill., after he filed his flight plan Oct. 19 that he needed a special code before heading into restricted airspace on his trip home, the National Transportation Safety Board said in the report. That code would have been put into a transponder, alerting air traffic controllers that he was allowed to fly into the Air Defense Identification Zone.

But Eberhardt, a certified commercial pilot with 3,800 hours of flight time, took off about 3:40 p.m. without the code and attempted to get it during the flight.

A controller told Eberhardt that he was "violating ADIZ" and had to "land at Tipton immediately ... and call us on the phone for your clearance."

Eberhardt agreed and began heading back to the airport. Seconds later, at 3:45 p.m., the 1987 Piper PA-46-310P crashed into a clearing near the runway, killing Eberhardt and his companion, Bobbi Getz, 56, of Pittsburgh.

Maryland section, Thursday

Lothian

Officer kills man in arrest attempt

An Anne Arundel County police officer shot and killed a man who pointed a gun at a special tactical team Thursday when the officers burst into his Lothian home to arrest him, the department said.

Mansfield Albert Hurley Jr., 25, of the 5100 block of Sands Road had been wanted in connection with a shooting early Thursday morning.